1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to an power supply system for a personal computer. More particularly, this invention relates to a new design approach to power supply system with a modularized and integrated cable interface for connecting a plurality of interface cable-groups to an external power source for providing power to each subsystem of a personal computer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The power supply system for a personal computer are required to provide power to increasingly more `peripheral equipment`, such as modem-facsimile, compact disk (C-D) driver, scanners, hard-disk drives, floppy disk drives, etc. Due to current trend of development in personal computers, it can be expected that such trend will continue. Especially when the microprocessor which is generally referred to as the central processing unit (CPU) are becoming more powerful to manage multi-media, multi-task functions. In addition to the this trend, each type and model of personal computers often has unique arrangement and configuration by placing these peripheral equipments in different locations. In order to satisfy this very complicate power supply requirements, a power supply system including the power cable and the interface connectors are required to be custom designed to uniquely meet the specifications of each model of computer system design.
FIG. 1 shows a prior art power supply system 10 which includes several groups of output (O/P) cables, i.e., cable groups 15-1, 15-2, 15-3, and 15-4 for connecting to the CPU and various different peripheral equipments such as hard-disk derive, floppy disk drive, monitor, and modem-facsimile board. The power supply system also has a power cable 20 for connecting to an external power source connector 25. The external power source connector is typically installed at the back-panel of a personal computer for connecting to an external source via a power line (not shown). Depending on the internal space arrangement, the power supply system 10 for a personal computer can be located at different positions in a personal computer system. The length of the power cable 20 and those of the O/P cable groups 15-1, 15-2, 15-3, and 15-4 are all different. For this reason, the general practice in manufacturing the power supply system for a personal computer is to custom design and then `tailor-make` those cables and group them in accordance with the specifications of each purchase order.
One example of these power supply systems is ASTEC's power supply Model AS145-3420 which has output cable connection and output cable groups as that shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B for an IBM personal computer. FIG. 2A is a side view of a power supply wherein a plurality of output cables from the AS145-3420 power supply is connected directly from the power supply unit near the top of the panel along a surface in the A-A' direction. The output-cable connection 40 of this power supply AS145-3420 unit is the same as that shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 2B shows the detail groupings of these output cables, i.e., cable groups 45-1 to 45-6. Since the groupings of these output cables 45-1 to 45-6 may be different for different model of computers, this Model AS145-3420 power supply shows a typical design approach generally used. Because ASTEC is one of the major power supply companies for the personal computers worldwide while IBM has continuously dominated the PC market share, the design method as shown for ASTEC145-3420 demonstrates the level of ordinary skill in the art of power supply design in the particular field pertinent to the personal computer systems.
Therefore, there is still a need for a new system configuration and design method in the art of power-supply design and manufacture in order to resolve these difficulties and limitations. Specifically, this new system configuration and design approach must be able to provide a more flexible scheme to satisfy different customer's requirements in providing power to many subsystems in a personal computer which may be arranged in many different ways according to the packaging layout, the level of integration, the performance level, the intended computer functions and a wide variety of other design considerations that the computer system designer may take into account.